Vow to push Calman through

Published on Sunday 16 May 2010 21:37

SCOTTISH Secretary Danny Alexander has pledged to push forward Calman recommendations to hand tax-raising powers to Holyrood "as quickly as possible".

The MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, who was part of the Liberal Democrats' negotiating team, said that recommendations would be made "within weeks".

He was speaking after taking part in "positive" talks with Prime Minister David Cameron, First Minister Alex Salmond and Scottish finance secretary John Swinney.

"Implementation of the Calman commission recommendation is in our coalition agreement and we intend to get on with that as quickly as we can," Mr Alexander said.

"There are of course some technicalities that have to be resolved, and Alex Salmond made clear that he had some questions he had to ask and some ideas he wanted to put forward."

He added: "I think it's something that we need to push forward with and that's what we're going to do."

Mr Alexander would not give firm commitments on other Liberal Democrat policies, including a reduction in fuel duty, and their place in the coalition agreement with the Conservative Party.

He said: "I've been in the job a few days now and we'll be making announcements about these things over the next few weeks – and I don't intend to pre-empt those in this interview either."

However, he hoped for further positive discussion with the Scottish Government on access to the 180 million fossil fuel levy, which is earmarked for green energy projects.